Principles
Data collection, sharing and reporting systems are designed to answer the specific questions of decision-makers, agencies and systems about the youth and families they serve as well as their policies and practices in assisting these populations.
Youth- and family-serving decision-makers, agencies and systems first consider how already-collected data may answer their questions about the populations they serve and their policies and practices before undertaking new data collection projects.
Data collection, sharing and reporting allows decision-makers, agencies and systems to make informed decisions in creating law and policy that affect the targeted population of youth and families, including choices regarding the allocation of funding and other resources.
Data collection, sharing and reporting permits decision-makers, agencies and systems to identify gaps in programming for the targeted population of youth and families and to develop appropriate programming to fill those gaps.
Sharing of personally-identifiable information for aggregate reporting purposes for law, policy, or program development is done on an as-needed basis and in compliance with all ethical principles and applicable federal and state laws.
Privacy rules including access rights and security safeguards minimize the potential for undesirable publication of personally identifiable case information.
Stakeholders are held accountable for improper sharing and use of personally identifiable information.
There is a presumption that de-identified data can be shared for aggregate reporting purposes because it does not raise the same privacy issues as personally identifiable data.
All decision-makers, agencies and systems responsible for serving youth involved with, or at risk of involvement in, the juvenile justice system participate in the creation of, and ongoing evaluation of, the data collecting, sharing, and reporting projects.